My life, travels and writing

Prompt Friday / Páros Péntek

We started a new writing project with my best writer friend Gabriella Szaszkó. Every Friday we’ll complete a short writing challenge in English and Hungarian. You can find Gabi’s solution on her author page. We’ll write both in English and Hungarian. Gabi would like to perfect her English writing, while I’d like to get into a steady writing practice and to generate steady content. Today’s challenge: “The most beautiful smile I ever saw…”

The most beautiful smile I ever saw was the lopsided grin of a pumpkin lantern. I’d been wandering in the darkness between heaven and hell since time immemorial and that sudden patch of light shone with hope. I staggered towards it, like the moth flies into the flame, hoping that finally somebody had mercy on me.

When I was young I made a pact with the devil. I didn’t mean to, of course, but what do you know when you’re young and lost in the haze of strong beer? The devil didn’t look like the devil of course, he never does. He had a familiar, friendly face and the best manners I had ever met. We drank from dusk till dawn, then from dawn till dusk. We started off as strangers but ended up as dearest friends. I didn’t think twice when he asked what my biggest wish was. I laughed and burped that I hoped I’d find something to save my soul from hell. He smiled sadly and changed into his real form. I had never seen something as horrible and as beautiful. “I’ll grant you your wish, dear friend,” he said and vanished into the fog that smelled of sulphur.

I died young but broken. One autumn night I drank too much and the morning found me frozen in a ditch. I watched my body being taken away and dumped into a mass grave far from the village church. Drunkards cannot rest in holy ground, and my soul was driven away from the gates of heaven. Nobody wanted me.

After all those years of darkness, the dancing flame was a bigger relief than water to my dry tongue. It wasn’t salvation yet but it was a promise.